9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 +3.5~103 +4.5~141 +8~212

9/9 Condo

After 6 days at 0.5 BID with relatively flat curves ranging from the mid 100s to low 300s, I fattened the 0.5 dose this morning. Seemed great, Yahtzee earned some greens today :mrgreen: ! PMPS was 129, which is lower than usual for Yahtzee but I went ahead and shot a fat 0.5 at the normal time because he tends to have a late nadir. At +3 he's already down to 85. I'm a bit concerned with what the next few hours may bring.

Here's my question, at what point should I start to feed medium carb food? I suspect he will continue to drop for another four hours or so, but it's hard to say for certain since his curves are a bit erratic. I don't want to jump the gun and carb him up too soon because I want to confirm whether he needs to have the dose reduced to 0.5 again. Any thoughts or advice is much appreciated!

Re: 9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 Need Advice

Hello Deb, Jane here!

Looking at your SS, I'm seeing a travelling nadir, meaning that Yahtzee's "lowest point of the cycle" moves around quite a bit. Over the past few days, though, he mostly seems to be favouring an early-ish nadir around (+3)/(+4). As a newly diagnosed cat who's also been through quite the dosing adventure (especially with the BID/SID/BID switches), it's not at all unusual to see what you're describing as "erratic curves" - Yahtzee hasn't found his stride quite yet. Because anticipating his responses is, at this point, still very much a trial-and-error type of situation, it's difficult to give you a blanket statement regarding carbs percebtages and when to opt for which one, but I'll try to give you some feedback for a few possible scenarios:

If Yahtzee fulfils your expectation and keeps dropping by (+4) and ends up, say, in the low 60s, you can (a) feed a little LC and re-test after half an hour, so see if that LC bumped him up (and that way, you'll have data on how slowly/quickly/well he responds to LC), or you can (b) feed a little MC and re-test in half an hour, for the same reason - to collect data and to be able to make a more informed decision next time :mrgreen: There's no way to try this other than learning-by-doing, I'm afraid - when the data isn't collected yet, it has to *be* collected, and the only way to do that is by trying (SAFELY) to see what works.

If you can stay home to monitor Yahtzee today, and you have plenty of test strips and various carbs options (LC, MC, HC, etc.), and Yatzee is still dropping reasonably gently at (+4), I would feed a tsp of LC and re-test after 30 minutes.

So that's my two cents' worth. What do you think?

Jane

Re: 9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 +3.5~103 +4.5~141

Boy, you sure said it, Yahtzee just hasn't found his stride yet!! I completely understand this is still our trial-and-error/learning period.

Thank you for the suggested options!! I had already gone with (a) ;-) because it was meal time anyway. I figured as long as his numbers were 'safe' I was going to continue our regular feeding routine. He hopped up to 103 at +3.5, which seems like a faster than usual jump immediately following food so maybe he's playing in the bouncy house. Then he ran around the house like a bandit chasing a toy mouse he hasn't played with for ages! Following play session at +4.5 he is up to 141. I'm not sure what active playtime does for BG numbers :?

I will be staying up tonight to continue testing, and yes, I have all the carb options and test strips :smile:

Thanks again for your two cents!!

Re: 9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 Need Advice

You're welcome, Deb.

I'm wondering whether you need to stay up the entire time tonight, given that he seems to have stuck to the currently favoured nadir I mentioned earlier (between +3 and +4) and now appears to be on the rise. You would probably be ok to re-test around (+6) just to see where he's gone, rather than staying up until then, and if he's till rising, I'd say you could get some rest, or if you're not happy to just leave him be, set an alarm and get a nother spot-check.

Overall, since being active burns more calories than resting, I would suspect that if anything, activity would help stabilize or even slightly lower BGs (as opposed to pushing them up). Karre's BGs certainly run higher when he sleeps all day than when he goes for a few garden walks and plays and whatnot.

Hang in there!

Yahtzee is a GORGEOUS cat!

Jane

Re: 9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 Need Advice

It looks like a lovely cycle. You'll have to keep an eye out to see if there's a trend with regard to the effect of activity on Yahtzee's numbers.

Just a note -- if you're question's been answered, can you edit your subject line?

Jane, you must be right about the activity level effect on BGs. Yahtzee's +5.5 was 138, pretty close to the +4.5 of 141. After a brief nap we got a spot check at +8 and he was back up to 212. So I squeezed in a few peaceful hours of sleep. Last night did not turn out to be the scary evening I was prepared for, I guess that's good. Thank you for your thoughts and the compliment!!

Sienne, thanks for looking in on us! I changed the subject line each time I posted a reply it doesn't seem to change the subject that appears on the board. Can you tell me how to do this so it shows up correctly on the board? Thanks!

Re: g's9/13 Yahtzee PMPS 129 +3~85 Need Advice

Hi Debra, you need to change the subject and bg numbers on the very first top condo for it to show up! I think that's what you were asking.

Ahh, edit the first post. Light bulb!!

Thank you Ann!!!